Plants and Pest Control

[Mafia Leader]

I'm growing a couple of plants at the moment, they're sat in my conservatory which is a very hot, dry place. It's almost a goddamn greenhouse, the way it's built, and they're growing incredibly quickly, and over the past few days, they've gotten REALLY big.

Now, my plants have been growing fine, but I'm wondering if there's perhaps something wrong with them. On the tops of the leaves, there's little white 'specks' if you will, that shimmer in the light. Worse yet, it appears that it is 'stamped' on each leaf, as the underside dents outwards where each speck is.
Having done a little research, I'm semi confident that I'm dealing with spidermites, but having never really undertaken botany before, I'm not entirely sure. I can get pictures of the specks if they are required for advanced analysis.

Also, on one of the plants, the base of the stem is becoming almost barky. Part of me assumes this is because the seed is actually very close to the surface of the soil, which has also given the plant a case of the Fall-Downs Syndrome, but I did catch mention of stems turning barky with some disease or another. Again, pics can be obtained for further analysis if needs be.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Captain Colon]

Sounds more like some kind of disease than pests, but of course they could be related. The dry stem is bad, it can mean that water isn't getting up to the rest of the plant (in a plant where the stem is not normally that way ie. not a tree).

Try taking some pictures and posting on a plant forum, cause I don't know anything about plants :p From your description it does look like spidermites, so keep your plants wet and see if that helps. There are a few predatory mite species you could try releasing, these should just kill all the spider mites and then starve to death (you asshole):

Phytoseiulus persimilis
Feltiella acarisuga
Amblyseius fallacis
Amblyseius [Neoseilus] californicus

[Shloom]

The woody stem could just be the plants maturing, and the spider mites could be taken care of with a very little bit of bleach in a spray bottle of water, spray it all down, rinse it with regular water, don't do it if the plant is flowering.